The present invention relates to wireless communication devices, such as cellular radiotelephones, and particularly relates to receiving electronic feed content via such devices.
Proliferation of the Extensible Markup Language (XML) and other languages such as HTML and JavaScript have spawned electronic “feeds,” e.g., web feeds. Electronic feeds provide access to changing item lists corresponding to electronic content available through the site hosting the feed, or available through linking from other sites. Content available through multiple sites often is referred to as “syndicated” content.
Feed-based content linking and delivery is distinct from other types of online media delivery because of its subscription model, which uses a feed, such as an RSS or Atom-based feed, to deliver electronic content. Electronic feeds generally provide summaries of their included or linked content, along with corresponding links for retrieving such content. Internet users can thus access or otherwise retrieve new content of interest from a selected feed as it becomes available by “subscribing” to the feed. Subscriptions generally provide automated notification of updated feed content and, optionally, automated retrieval of the updated content.
Part of the flexibility and power of these subscription-based electronic feeds is that they can include or link to any content type such as text, audio, video, multimedia, pictures, etc. A subscriber to a feed can modify or delete an existing subscription to that feed based on his or her personal preferences. Podcasting is a specific type of electronic feed that provides summaries and corresponding links to audio content, although podcast feeds can link to other content type, too, such as video or multimedia content.
Arguably, the most prevalent subscription scenario for electronic feed content involves a personal computer (PC) configured with the appropriate software. The term “aggregator” generally identifies computer software that assembles different electronic feeds into a consolidated form for easier presentation to the user. Aggregators targeted to specific types of electronic feeds are known by more specialized names. For example, the term “podcatcher” denotes aggregator software targeted to podcast feeds, which are generally collections of audio files (commentaries, etc.). Newsreaders represent another form of aggregator software, and typically are targeted to news subscriptions available as Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds.
While PCs represent the dominant platform for obtaining electronic feed content, the ever increasing sophistication of portable wireless communication devices, such as cellular handsets, make them increasingly viable platforms for accessing content through electronic feeds. Indeed, with their relatively large displays, generally good audio quality, and built-in packet data network access, cellular handsets and other wireless devices represent a convenient means of accessing electronic feed content available on public and/or private information networks. Of course, the mobile nature of such devices poses both challenges and opportunities for adapting the existing electronic subscription service models to the mobile environment.